12 Aug 2019

Botswana’s ICT sector must start scalable businesses and take advantage of emerging markets.

Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH),  Mr Tshepo Tsheko Information Communications Technology (ICT and marketing director noted that the fourth industrial revolution was expected to disrupt all facets of society leading to convergence of all sectors into previously non-defined technological ecosystems.

 The private sector, he said,  needed to do more in ‘disrupting’ the ICT sector with solutions for different needs within the society.    

Mr Tsheko said government had made accommodations for transacting existing gaps in the domestic market such as the Maitlamo Policy, which envisions positioning Botswana for sustainable growth in the digital age.

Government would then simply become the amplifier and facilitator to those solutions rather than becoming integral to the ICT product market, he said.

He revealed that other changes had been made in the ICT space to enable readiness for the adoption of technology in the facilitation of innovators.

Mr Tsheko further noted that Botswana ranked highly in the opportunities index giving ICT innovators a chance to harness them.

He said digital literacy in ICT was integral to stimulating interest in the target market to achieve exponential growth.

Mr Tsheko said awareness of the target market would better enable innovators to create solutions for everyday problems.

He advised innovators in the ICT sector to ensure affordable access in infrastructure in order to accommodate everyone needing services.

He revealed that the current technological ecosystems had made access to internet a basic need thereby rendering selling internet an unsustainable business.

“The conversation needs to start being about selling value added services in ICT as a way to stimulate sustainable business and revenue growth,” he said.

 E-commerce in Botswana, Mr Tsheko, has initially grown and improved despite challenges in internet connectivity and power outages that disrupted transactions. Ends